Paris Fashion Week Spring 2017 Recap: Designer Debuts and ’80s Mania

Paris Fashion Week wrapped yesterday with Miu Miu’s Palais d’Iéna show. Before that, it was a week of diverse fun, from Stella McCartney’s dance-off finale to Balmain’s rager of an after-party. And while the biggest news out of the week might have been the horrifying robbery of Kim Kardashian West, we’re focusing on the notable runway moments and trends here. Until next season!

There Were Designer Debuts AplentyFour of Paris Fashion Week’s nine days were marked by a designer debut. First up was Olivier Theyskens and the rebirth of his eponymous brand, followed later on that day by Anthony Vaccarello’s first collection for Saint Laurent. Both were predominantly black collections with subversive takes on sex—for Theyskens it was hook-and-eye closures and a cinched waist, Vaccarello prefers a miniature silhouette and transparent top. Then came Bouchra Jarrar’s tailored take on Lanvin, followed by Maria Grazia Chiuri’s diverse showing at Christian Dior, which modernized the legendary house’s codes. This was all capped off, and amazingly so, by Pierpaolo Piccioli’s solo debut at Valentino, the highlight of the week.

ComfortIs KingThe athleisure effect can’t be denied. At Fenty x Puma and Balmain, stretch leggings were as common on the runway as knit gowns—but those are just the more literal takes on comfort dressing. Elsewhere, designers imbued their collections with a sense of ease that championed feeling as good in your clothes as you look. Jonathan Anderson’s excellent Loewe collection of breezy dresses and textural separates made the point the most clear, although it might be Céline’s white sneakers and Lemaire’s flat white booties that we see most of on women come spring.

The ’80s Are Back in a Big, Dramatic, Over-the-Top WayIn America, we are struggling with The Donald, but in Paris, it is the time of another Trump. We’re talking about Ivanka, an ’80s-era model with a penchant for flair. Balenciaga showed Dynasty-worthy draping, neon Spandex, and bejeweled press-on nails that exuded some Reagan-era flair, while Kenzo continued to amplify and glitz up its ready-to-wear with pouf shoulders and sequins. Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent debut paid homage to a 1982 Yves Saint Laurent collection designed by Yves himself, and ’80s beauty tricks like draped blush and blue eyeshadow appeared at shows from Chanel to Louis Vuitton.

What Does It Mean to Be Tech Savvy?Karl Lagerfeld created a #DataCenterChanel, and wove computer wiring into the house’s famous bouclé tweeds—a World Wide Web, indeed. Hussein Chalayan propelled us into the technological future with garments that read his models’ levels of anxiety, excitement, or fear and projected the results on a wall beside them. And Nicolas Ghesquière, sent out Petite Malle phone cases instead of It bags at Louis Vuitton. “Every woman is like that, even when they go out and they’re dressed up, they have those [phone cases],” he told Vogue Runway’s Nicole Phelps after the show.

Young Talent Takes OverJust three years ago, Simon Porte Jacquemus was one of the freshest names on the Paris Fashion Week calendar. Now he’s the winner of an LVMH prize with an international business. Call him a harbinger of Paris’s young creative renaissance. This season, brands like Atlien, Nehera, Koché, Y/Project, Aalto, and Vejas continued to challenge fashion—and make headlines in the process. Here’s to more of that next season!

It’s Comme-ing at You From All SidesRei Kawakubo’sComme des Garçons’s shows usually defy explanation and this season’s was no different. With “invisible clothes” as the only statement released on the show, we were left to wonder how, exactly, a dress the size of a house qualifies as invisible. Across Paris, however, there were some very visible archive Comme pieces for sale, all amassed by an Australian collector. From the surreal to the real, it’s safe to say this was the season of Comme.